Selfish
by Bouncebackability
Summary: Post AoS, Mickey and Pete in the other world.


"You selfish bastard".

As far as conversations with the aim of starting a rebellion army go it wasn't the start Pete Tyler had imagined. He was thinking more along the lines of a scene from Les Mis; all devotion to the cause and talk of "If I die, think only this of me.". Sure, meeting in Jim's Cafe in Croyden probably didn't have the same atmosphere as some secret hideout but it was a start.

Mickey, or Rickey, or whatever he fancied calling himself these days, sat hunched slightly over a full fried breakfast looking straight at Pete with pure loathing. Granted, he was 10 minutes late but surely punctuality wasn't that valued in the other world.

It took a moment to finally form a coherent sentence, "You what?"

"You heard me - You Selfish Bastard." Mickey said in exactly the same tone as before but spitting out the important words with such force Pete felt saliva on his face. Jake was sitting next to Mickey but from a quick glance it was obvious that he wasn't going to help in illuminating whatever it was he had done wrong. The spiky haired Geordie just staring straight at Pete, but without the feeling of hate radiating from his every cell.

"She was leaving, then you'd never see her again, all you had to do was put up a mask for 5 minutes – and you didn't. I know you are not her Dad, not really, but all you had to do was pretend."

Pete opened his mouth to respond, but never got the chance. "You're dead in her world. Did you know that? She never got to know you properly, you died when she was a baby."

Pete didn't, and maybe if he had it would of altered his actions slightly, but he was loathed if he was going to admit it.

"No, I didn't know. But it wouldn't change anything. She is not my daughter, and I am not her father."

"She had just found herself flung into a parallel world at which point the TARDIS promptly broke on us. She then had to cope with the killer robotic monsters straight out of a low budget movie who changed her mother into one of them. Then you had to go and do that to her." Mickey spat. And there was that glare again, and it looked like it wouldn't be going any time soon.

The comedy of the situation hit him, the whole purpose of this meeting was to form the resistance and the 3 people around the table had absolutely no faith in each other. The world was doomed.

As much as Pete wanted to take up the defensive and say that after that day from hell she also probably didn't want her mate to stay behind, never to be seen again. But that wouldn't advance anything and Pete Tyler didn't get to where he is today without having to work with people he disliked. Jackie, now she'd bring him down a peg or two, but she wasn't here and the only way to stop what happened to her to happen to others was to work with one Mickey Smith. By the end of this conversation Mickey had to understand that they didn't have to like each other, they just needed to reach an agreement. He decided go all in.

"Mickey, you obviously hate me but I refuse to apologise for what I did. I dislike you, I think you are too stubborn for your own good. You have a chip on your shoulder the size of a small country and you need to learn that sticking up for your mates is all well and good but maybe you should get some bloody perspective. The world is being upgraded and we both want that stopped. You have the codes and the experience. I saw what you did in France, but I have the contacts, the resources and the power. Get over yourself and see that we are better working together."

Mickey softened slightly, picking up his fork and messing about with some scrambled egg on his plate. "Yeah, alright. So what do you propose?"

Pete gave an speech which he thought was rather impressive sounding, the kind best delivered in a courtroom at the end of a big budget movie, full of emotion and passion. Jake and Mickey obviously seemed respect him more as it went on and by the end the frostiness had passed. Ok, maybe that was an exaggeration but it was fair to say Pete was no longer scared for his life. They talked about headquarters and arsenals. Of political stances, ethics and ideology. It took some time but finally the conversation was going in the direction Pete originally intended. There was no flag waving yet, but this was a greasy spoon in 21st century London and not a West End Musical. Flag waving may have resulted in a lynching, and it's hard to kick start a rebellion from an Intensive Care Unit.

Finally it got to him. He needed to know about Mickey, they needed to talk, to bond, to start to get on. It was hard to find common ground with a guy who may well come from a world where Chelsea FC were not seen as a laughing stock, where Coronation Street wasn't the nations most watched TV programme or where Jim Davidson was actually funny. He knew the conversation was at risk of turning into a game of 20 questions, but he had to do it. He didn't want to know about the other him. He didn't want to know how he died, or where he lived he didn't even want to know what Jackie was like. He wasn't Rose's dad, Jackie wasn't his wife and he wasn't that Pete Tyler. It would be like hearing the story of some random guy who you don't know. Like in a pub when they go on about Bev who worked on Gosling's Sweets in the indoor market and you don't have a clue who they are. You nod your head and pretend that it means something that she's going out with James from Music Zone. Not that you know who he is either.

"So, Mickey, how the hell did you end up here?" He asked, deciding to jump straight in.

"Van". Ok, so maybe the hate was still there. He was sure it had been downgraded to severe dislike but he was mistaken. However, unfortunately for Mickey, all those years of being a Del Boy had taught Pete a lot and he carried on regardless.

"Well obviously, I meant the London-which-isn't-your-London."

"A 1950s police box" He said making Pete finally appreciate the enormity of the task. Screw cybermen, just getting a team together and talking was going to be an uphill struggle. Maybe the boy was cleverer than he gave him credit though, remembering the blue box when he and Rose had THAT conversation.

"Yeah, suppose it was powered by chips." Pete said, slightly bitter in a tone of voice which was somewhere between a mumble and exhale. The kind of phrase the speaker doesn't know if they want it to be heard or not.

"Might as well have been now that you come to mention it. Rose has always had a liking for them."

"No one dislikes chips" Jake finally added to the conversation before obviously feeling uncomfortable and staring intently at a burn mark in the cheap red plastic table cloth.

"But seriously, how did you get here?"

Mickey smiled for the first time since this meeting started, he even let out a brief chuckle. "I've told you, a 1950s police box. Well, actually it's a TARDIS, just looks like a big blue box."

Pete looked at him with a look of exaggerated confusion on his features. "They are not a day-to-day item over here. You will have to explain".

"There's only one in the universe supposedly, and that means all of them by the way. It's a living time and space machine. It's the Doctor's, and I guess Rose kind of lives in it too. I was just hitching a lift". Mickey looked down and started playing with the scrambled egg again. Obviously some kind of nervous habit, he decided to lighten the mood.

"So, are those 2, you know, together?"

"Might as well be, it's a really odd friendship. It is so innocent, well as innocent as it can be when you spend most of your life running away from imminent death. They sleep together, but I'm pretty sure nothing goes on. They hold hands but never snog, I think Jackie even sees him as her unofficial son in law now. You should see the Doctor's face when he is forced into domestication by the Tyler women."

"Good man!" Pete exclaimed, grinning. Anyone who stuck up to Jackie deserved respect – and there he was again. Slowly the smile fell from his face. He couldn't think that way, couldn't confuse their Jackie for his Jackie, she wasn't and she never would be. He didn't share an ice cream with that Jackie walking down Blackpool's South Pier, they didn't go spending his first pay check in Marks and Spencer's trying to get the house looking nice, she didn't smash his car around a lampost and he didn't spill bleach on her favourite top. Nostalgia was bad, so was grief. There was a fight and no amount of wollowing would bring her back. He wouldn't even meet Rose's mum, he needed a distraction.

"So, how did you get your hands on a Tardet?" Pete asked. "Did the Doctor make it?"

Mickey thought for a beat before answering "TARDIS and I doubt it, it's a living thing. Telepathic and really cool. Translates languages in your head for you and it's massive on the inside. I mean like you can easily get lost in it massive. You should have seen it inside. The Doctor isn't human. It came from his home planet."

Now that one was a surprise. "As in he's alien?"

Mickey nodded, "Time Lord. It's easy to forget, even when he's taking you on spaceships from the 53rd century or he's being an insensitive prick. He's got no idea how human emotions work. He's getting better at it though. At Christmas he died, literally, then came back. New body, new accent, new personality traits and a damn sight nicer. I think that's when his alieness hit Rose"

"So, just to clarify, you traveled through time and space with an alien who can change his body in a 1950s police box which is bigger on the inside until one day you found yourself in a different world and decided to stay?"

Mickey nodded, "That sums it up pretty neatly." He smiled, laughed, leaned over to Pete's ear and whispered.

"Just to let you know, once you've met our little group your life tends to go a bit mental".

**Please review, because reviews make me smile even if they are pointing out my mistakes and telling me how to get better. :) Thanks, Gobby.**


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